7. Les Mis Part B

What I didn't like: And I didn't like it even a little bit, was the overload of information about the battles and the battle scenes and French background stuff. I thought that it was completely unnecessary and wasted my time. He could have given me a sufficient background in less than a quarter of the words. The second thing was the use of French words in the ENGLISH TRANSLATION of the text. In reality I have no idea if Les Mis was written in French or English but it was frustrating the amount words that he insisted to put in there that I had no chance of understanding.
What I loved/ am going to try and implementing in my life: Jon val Jon pushed the limits of human selflessness. He gave of himself so entirely that it seemed that a human being couldn't do such a thing, but I know that it really is possible. And I want to do more things that are truly charitable and giving of myself.  The part where he decides to turn himself in so that an innocent man doesn't get taken to the Gallies in his place, and he has to overcome many many obstacles in order to do so particularly effected me. He was a changed man that by all measures didn't deserve any further punishment, but he simply couldn't make another innocent man go through the pain that he unjustly suffered in the same way. He realized that his life was in no way better than that of any other human being, no matter how saintly he himself was, and he couldn't not bring himself to do harm to another person.
Jon val Jon knew how to truly repent. He knew how to change, and make sure that your actions were in accordance with that change. Some would say that he made himself suffer for too long in order to make himself feel better about his past—self induced guilt—but I think that he just underwent a real change in his life, and the sacrifices made by him were because that was who he had become, and what he actually desired to do, not, to prove to himself or any others that he really was good.
I also want to make sure that I am successful monetarily so that I can be the power for good that he was in the lives of so many. I really want to be able to do that.

6. Les Mis Part A

Les Miserables
So I have been reading. . . or rather listening to Les Mis for a couple of weeks now. Yeah, its a super crazy long book. More than 45 hours of listening at 1.5 speed to be exact. I just finished it and I feel the need to ponder a little bit about what I think about it and how I am going to let it affect my life now that it is a part of me. That is how I feel about reading good books, or bad ones for that matter, they become an essential or important part of who I am, how I see the world, the things that I appreciate, the people that I am capable of relating to. Sometimes a really good movie an have the same effect, however, I feel that a book due to the amount of time required to spend with it, and the effort needed to imagine the faces, the expressions on those faces, the voice of every single character, the would-be back ground music (which totally happens by the way) makes it more internal and personal than a movie that really gives you everything on a plate, could ever be. Alright, sorry about the tangent.
The general overview: I really enjoyed Les Miserables, I have wanted to read it for a good while now, but never got up the courage to start a book that big, so even if it wasn't that great of a book, (which, don't get me wrong, it was) I still would have felt a great sense of accomplishment upon finishing it. I thought that the character development great for a a few key characters, lacking a little in some other characters.... now that I am playing critique, I am a little self conscious doing so to a book this old, popular, and renowned, because whatever bad things I say about it will surely say more about myself than the book itself, but here we go anyway. I thought that the plot of the book was fascinating. The author did a really good job of making me love the protagonist (Jon val Jon and hating with a deep passion the antagonists (the Tenadie couple).  Another fun fact: if you listen to a lot of audiobooks you'll start to realize that you have no idea how the names of a lot of characters with difficult names are spelled—because you've never seen them. haha—so those are most definitely spelled wrong. I am sure of it.

5. Research Topic: What to research? What to know?

Getting ready to do some research. Mmmhmmm. I feel like it would really help if I knew what it was that I was interested in. Let's see, I am intrigued by flight and piloting kind of. I am sure I could find a relative that flew in the war or something, but I also heard Professor Steadman talking about birth order and its effects, and that is something that I would love to research, but I feel like a copy-cat. In the end that doesn't really matter, obviously, but i still just don't know what I want to do. I know that I am going to put a significant amount of time into studying this, I want it to be something that I care about.
Alright, I was on Familsearch looking at my past family and I noticed that it was super common to have 9 or more children. that is definitely something that is out of the norm now days. I wonder why that is? In the past, I don't know, 2 centuries there has been a definite decline in number of children. I am just thinking about that. My family is fairly large, we don't fit the norm. I grew up with 5 older siblings and I felt a sense of pride in being in a family that large. when we went to a restaurant people were surprised and impressed, especially when we were on vacation to places with less members of the church,and I was proud of it. I had a sense of team, a feeling that I was part of something larger than just me. I feel like most useful life skills I learned from my older siblings, which was obviously important to me, and I think that the chance to teach a younger sibling was important to them in their development as well.
I am also thinking about how well-off a family is. I know that my family was pretty wealthy and I feel like having a lot of kids was something that spurred us to that (as counter-intuitive as that may seem) nothing inspires hard work and success like an increase of responsibility, and having kids does just that.
Another quick thought: could it be that people are simply more selfish no than they were before?

Another side thought. I almost wanted to do my research on ancient Cherokee chieftains seeing as this guy right here is one of my distant ancestors. His name is standing Turkey. That is pretty cool.

4. I love to ponder....ize the scriptures

I had made my list of questions and was ready to go Saturday morning.  A little sick, but ready to receive revelation. however sturdy morning rolled by and I really didn't have a single question answered. A wonderful experience to be certain, but my chest was not relieved of any one of the questions weighing upon it. Unexpectedly, it was a brand new apostle that came to save the day Saturday afternoon.  I had asked myself, and directed this same question toward God in prayer while preparing for conference, "What can I do to become less selfish, and start seeing the world through the lens of 'what's in it for THEM' rather than the oh-so-familiar 'what's in it for me'. When Elder Renlund spoke of seeing others as their parents would see them and ultimately as their Heavenly parents would see them, and then act accordingly, I was filled with the spirit and I felt that the Lord was speaking to me through this apostle, and felt the peaceful assurance that this man really was the new apostle. I decided to make part of my journal entry (something that I am getting steadily better at) how I was able to apply that in my life that day/week. I love the idea of treating and thinking of others in the same way that their Parents would.

Another question i was pondering was: “how am I going to start to really internalize scriptures?” I have memorized many scriptures in my day, but at the current moment, I can really only quote on demand a small handful of those. Those efforts have definitely not been a waste, I have a thin grasp on the main idea of most of those previously mentioned scriptures, but it just isn’t the relationship that I really desire. Elder Durrant was the instrument that the Lord used to answer this, my question and I’m sure many other prayers. He also addressed the constant desire to make ourselves into better people, and that always starts with our thoughts. He displays the completely logical idea that this system allows our minds to have a higher plane of thought all the time.

Not only was it the message that was impactful but equally important was his mastery of deliverance. His smile through out, the use of many proven case studies, and the backing up of argument with doctrine.